Our Adventure in Khao Sok National Park
A two-day treat away from the hustle and bustle of busy towns and cities, we spent time in the tranquil setting of Khao Sok National Park; a nature-lover’s paradise.
Being about 90 miles from Phuket (where we were before Khao Sok National Park), and 450 miles from Bangkok (where we wanted to go next), we weren’t sure if we were going to bother with the trip or not, but we are so glad we did it! Khao Sok National Park is home to one of the world’s oldest jungles, and you actually get to sleep in a floating bungalow on the lake within the most breath-taking surroundings.
The trip started off at a village near the National Park, where we checked into the tour and were picked up and taken to the park entrance. It was here that we caught a glimpse of Cheow Larn Lake for the first time. The colour of the water was incredible, and we could already see hints of magnificent limestone rock formations within it. Cheow Larn Lake is Thailand’s largest manmade freshwater lake, and it was built in 1987. It’s 165 km2 in area, and 90m deep at its deepest point.
We jumped on a long-tail boat and made the 45 minute trip to the bungalows we’d be staying in that night. The boat took us the scenic route through all the different tiny islands and rocks, including ‘Three Brothers’, which is the group of three rocks together, and probably the most iconic and photographed scenes of the national park on Instagram! Of course, we didn’t get to leave the area without some forced, awkward pictures of us in front of the Three Brothers.
As we approached the floating bungalows, we couldn’t believe this is where we were going to be staying the night! They’re called floating bungalows, but really they’re more like floating hotel rooms. Still though, amazing!! We had our own little deck with two life jackets on, and a set of ladders to get in and out of the lake. There was also a restaurant/bar area in the middle of the row of bungalows where we’d be eating and drinking during our stay. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before! The part of the lake in which we were staying was 60m deep, but we were absolutely sweating and had had a long day already, so this didn’t deter us from plunging into the cool emerald green water, and having a swim.
We’d been given our itinerary for the rest of the day, so we knew to be at the restaurant at 1pm sharp for our included lunch. After that, we were to take the boat to part of the jungle for some trekking, then we’d board a raft to take us to a cave, explore that, then do it all again backwards. What wasn’t on the itinerary was spotting actual wild elephants! Our captain heard them chopping the bamboo canes down with their trunks (I have no idea how he heard this over the top of the boat’s engine, but he did), so we turned the engine off and floated near to where they were. Hidden away in the dense forest, we could see glimpses of a trunk here, an ear there, but it was so very special nonetheless. We absolutely love elephants, so seeing them living their lives out in the wild was wonderful.
Back to the original plan, we continued the boat trip to the jungle. We hiked for a while, I got a leech stuck on my leg much to the disgust of the group, then we made it to the raft. Now, keeping in mind that when we were on the boat… with sides… and no holes in the floor, we were made to wear life jackets. On the raft… without sides… and holes in the floor, no life jackets to be seen! Go figure. Anyway, we were happy to have a break from the back-sweat-creating body huggers that they are. We got to the cave and to give it its due, it was spectacular. It was absolutely massive, and there were so many different formations in there. I’d love to tell you more about it, but rather than sharing information on the cave, our guide just pointed out random shapes and told us what they looked like - elephants, for example. She even went as far as making everyone turn off their torches so she could shine her torch onto one and show us the shadow it cast onto the wall, what she called “Peter the witch”. It was comical though, and I could see she was trying hard to break the ice with her limited English and a group of tourists who were strangers to each other just hours before.
Of course, within the cave, I got another leech on my leg, this time drawing a fair bit of blood and we had to pause the cave tour while one of our French tour-mates, who just happened to be a nurse, whipped out some antiseptic wipes for me to press onto my leg and stop the bleeding. This is such a typical thing to happen to me. I was fine anyway, and full of leech-based paranoia, we all boarded the raft and trekked back through the jungle to our trusty boat.
On the way back to our bungalows, we stopped by the spot the elephants were in earlier and they were still there grazing away on bamboo! This time, we got an even better view and could see they had a baby with them. Apparently, this herd had eleven members and frequently dines in this part of the jungle. We were still so chuffed to be seeing such beautiful creatures in their natural habitat.
We got back, had dinner and made friends with the French couple (one of whom I mentioned earlier during leech-gate). They were both nurses and were on their delayed honeymoon - their wedding was just before the pandemic, so their honeymoon was delayed as they were somewhat needed at work. We played cards with them and swapped a few travel stories, as well as advice on our future travels in Bangkok, etc. We called it a night at around 11 as we had to be up bright and early at 5:30am for the morning mist trip.
Day two, 5:30am. We did not want to get up! We dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to the restaurant area, where the vegetarian option was egg-fried rice and/or a banana. The boat ride was quite fun, seeing the clouds hanging low and in front of the rocks, but we were all yawning our heads off and I think we’d have opted for a couple of hours more in bed. However, we did get to see some cheeky macaques and gorgeous hornbills up in the trees.
We got back to the bungalows and packed our bags, then boarded the boat for the last time to leave this wonderful part of the world behind. The next part was unexpected, because due to the guide’s lack of English, she didn’t clearly explain what was happening between us leaving the lake and us getting back to the Khao Sok Lake office where we were originally picked up. We were all a bit confused with what was happening for the next few hours of our lives, but we just went with it and embraced what was to come.
We stopped abruptly at a viewpoint and saw the lake for one last time. The sheer scale of it really hit me for the first time up there. It was one thing to be on it, and in amongst all the limestone cliffs, but to see it from up above, really put into context just how grand it is. We got back into the minivan and headed down the road for another abrupt stop. This time, it was to look at some rubber trees and pineapple plants! It was cool to see how the rubber is collected from the trees as I’d never seen this before, and I also didn’t know pineapples grew on the ground! Just up from these plants, our guide led us to a building with a pretty big garden in it. She pointed out so many amazing plants including loads of varieties of chilis, passionfruit, banana trees and even some cannabis plants.
The first plant up for tasters was the chili plant. I’m not great with spicy food at the best of times, but Tora big bollocks decided to go all in and put an entire chili in their mouth. I’ve never witnessed instant regret like it. Please see the video below to also witness this spectacle.
Next, we were sat down and given some tasters of the passionfruit at different levels of ripeness. Most were delicious! Some were bitter as they weren’t yet ripe enough. The next taster was a cup of tea, which our guide said was a surprise, then told us it was cannabis tea! After all the passionfruit and cannabis tea, we were called over to a machine where they were squeezing all the liquid out of the sugar canes to make pure cane sugar juice. It was so sweet, but absolutely beautiful!
We’re still not entirely sure what this place was all about, but the owner/gardener came out and greeted us and hung around smiling as we walked around his garden checking out all of his brilliant hard work.
After this, we were taken to a restaurant where we had lunch at 11am then got whisked off back to the office to await our taxi to the next destination.
The trip did have its weird moments, but overall, it was one of those experiences you look back at pictures of and just can’t believe you were actually there.
One final cringey, forced selfie just for good measure.